Sucrose octanitrate



May 25, 1937. wY-LER 2,081,161

SUCROSE OCTANITRATE Filed May 14 1936 INVENTOR BY MS N MWQ Patented May 25, 1937 PATENT OFFICE SUCROSE OGTANITRATE Joseph A, Wyler, Allentown, Pa., assignor to Trojan Powder Company, a corporation of New York Application May 14,

6 Claims.

My invention relates to a product obtained by the nitration of sucrose or cane sugar and more particularly relates to sucrose octanitrate of a new crystalline form.

The preparation of sucrose octanitrate in the form of long needles or prisms is known and its properties such as melting point, color, explosiveness, density, etc. are described in various publications. v

The sucrose octanitrate which is embodied in this invention is in the form of six-sided plates of extreme thinness. In the drawing there is illustrated a single crystal of my new product. As indicated in the drawing, the bases of this new type of crystal are six-sided, but the crystals are not true hexagonal plates, since all six sides are not of equal length and all angles are not each equal to 120. Two opposite sides are distinctly longer than the other four sides, 91) which latter four sides seem to be of equal length. The angles made between each set of two of these latter four sides are right angles or approximately so. The edges of the crystals constituting the thickness of the crystals are at right angles to the six-sided faces. Therefore, the crystals give all indications of being pseudohexagonal orthorhombic in form.

In order to more definitely describe the crystals the following average dimensions showing the relative proportions of the edges of the crystals are given.

The angle made by b and 0:90 or approximately so.

In considering these dimensions it should be borne in mind that they represent my best average determination and not an absolutely exact relationship. Similarly, my determination of the angle made by b and 0 may be slightly 45 in error. Furthermore, in a relatively few crystals the lengths of .b and of c seemed to 5,, be appreciably difierent glossibly due to slight filed June 17, 1985, is given an example of how I nitrate cane sugar in the presence of nitrated 69 butyl lactate in order to obtain my crystalline 1936, Serial No. 79,759

octanitrate of sugar. tially as follows:

1126 parts of a mixed acid consisting of of nitric acid, of sulfuric acid and 5% of water are placed in a suitable nitrating vessel and cooled to about 0 C. Then, with continued stirring and cooling, add 108 parts of nitrated butyl lactate. When all the nitrated butyl lactate has been added, add 130 parts of powdered dried sucrose, maintaining the temperature at about 0 C. The stirring and cooling is continued for about one hour after the feeding of the sugar, in order to complete the nitration.

The charge in the nitrator is then run into a settling tank, the spent acid layer is run out, and the nitrated product is run into water, with stirring of the mixture. After several washes with water and with a 2% water solution of sodium bicarbonate, the nitrated product This example is essenis thrown into ethyl alcohol and agitated so as to enable the ethyl alcohol to dissolve out the nitrated butyl lactate, without dissolving much of the octanitrate of sugar. This mixture is then filtered and washed on the filter with small portions of ethyl alcohol. The product on the filter is dried at 40-60 C. and consists of the crystalline octanitrate of sugar, which is the subject of this invention.

This example of a method of preparation of this new octanitrate of sugar does not represent the only method available for the preparation of this particular octanitrate of sugar but is given for the purpose of disclosing how the product embodied in this invention may be made and obtained in a pure condition.

The sucrose octanitrate possessing this new structural form has certain properties not possessed by the needle or the p'r'is'm crystal as well as certain other characteristics which are more pronounced in the case of this new octanitrate of sugar than they are in the case of the prismatic crystal.

First of all, I have recrystallized octanitrate of sugar by the use of a large number of solvents and have always obtained the needle or prism type A (long and thin) and never the plate crystal above referred to, whereas whenever I have carried out a process of. preparation as described above, the crystals obtained have always been the six-sided plates of extreme thinness, and never the needle or prism crystals. This property of the'plate crystal of separating under the conditions existing in the nitration has the desirable effect of preventing the contents of the nitrator from thickening and thus forming an unmanageable plastic lump and also of increasing the yield of the sucrose octanitrate by virute of its own separation from the incompletely nitrated sugar and thus effecting a more efiicient contact of the nitric acid with theincompletely nitrated sugar which is still present as a more or less globular or colloidal suspension in the nitrating acid.

Furthermore, due to this property of the plate crystals of separating in the manner described I am able to efiect the recovery and separation bf the octanitrate of sugar from foreign materials by the simple practicable means mentioned the above example. H

I am also able to stabilize the nitrated product in the form of these thin plates by -simply stirring the crystals, as made above, in an alkaline solution such as a 1% solution of NH: or a 2% solution of NaHCOa, no dissolving and recrystallization of these crystals being necessary in order to effect this stabilization.

Another distinguishing characteristic of the plate crystal as compared to the needle or prismatic crystal of octanitrate of sugar is that the plate type is distinctly more brittle and it is this brittleness which enables us to stabilize our octanitrate of sugar by simply stirring the crystals in an alkaline medium. This brittleness is so great that a large proportion of the crystals crush each other to a fineness less than 60 mesh during the stabilization.

The-following are some additional properties of my octanitrate of sugar:

The ignition test herein referred to is made as follows: V 0.2 gm. of the dried sample is placed in--a glass tube 75 long and 11 mm. diameter, sealed with a. cork provided with a small (2 mm. diameter) hole and the tube then placed in a closely fitting hole in an iron block at a temperature of about '100 C, The temperature bf the block is then raised 3 per minute until the nitrated sugar detonates, when the temperature of the block is read. This is the ignition temperature.

In addition to the above useful properties, the otaiiitrate of sugar in the crystal form of sixs i'ded plates of extreme thinness, has its own uiseinetive streets when used as an explosive or in explosive mixtures, upon apparent density or bulk, s ensitiveness toward friction, sensitiveness toward detonation, and rate of burning.

Having described my invention, including my preferred method for preparing this new octanitrate of sugar, I claim:

"1. As a new article of manufacture, sucrose octanitr'ate possessing a six-sided plate structure. 2. As a new article of manufacture, sucrose 'octafiitrate in-the form of six-sided plates.

'3. a new article of manufacture, sucrose octanitrate in the form of pseudohexagonal orthor'ho'i'nliic plates.

4. As a newarticle of manufacture, sucrose octaniti'a'te possessing a six-sided plate structure and having a melting point of approximately possessing a six-sided plate structure.

JOSEPH A. WYLER. 

